BRAND
MEKO Colours
DURATION
3 months
Role
I scripted, produced and edited effects on a creative advertising campaign. I spent close to 2 months on this, manually masking and chroma keying this video to produce the final output.
Design Objective
As part of a college assignment for a Media Production module, my task was to produce a creative video. I chose to create a short video advertisement for fictional paint brand 'Meko Colours'.
The video had to contain evidence of the video production and effects skills taught in the module.
IDEATION
I adapted 'Meko Colours' as a variation of my own brand logo at the time. I wanted the focus to be on the paint itself and less on the actors or models.
To research, I explored a range of existing campaigns to understand competitor strategy. During my perusal, inspiration struck me in the form of a music video. Maroon 5's 'Love Somebody' had a very interesting use of reverse chroma keying. Using this effect as my starting point, I began production.
Inspiration moodboard from 'Love Somebody' by Maroon 5
PRE-PRODUCTION
Since this was a college production, I had to be wary of budget and time constraints (especially with studio time). I enlisted the help of classmates as a production team, and casted one of them as the main actor.
I began by storyboarding my vision. Since there was no dialogue involved, I used my detailed storyboard as a production guide and script. I also promptly procured material & props for production.
PRODUCTION
On the day of shooting, the shots had to be in reverse order, since the shots in the final output would be in reverse. This meant that the model gradually added more paint to her face.
In certain shots, the final reverse shot would produce a text reveal. To achieve this, I write the text first on the surface (skin/acetate) and then the model proceeded to cover the paint.
The final shot, a very tricky shot that I only had one chance to get right. It required the paint to flow organically down the models face. It also required the model to maintain composure until we called cut.
POST PRODUCTION
I had referred to the making of 'Love Somebody' to understand how to shoot the campaign. I used blue paint in order to key my all the paint in my scene.
Working on After Effects, I applied an inverted chroma key to obtain only the paint elements in each shot. In some cases, I had to manually mask elements out that were residual paint spots/stains. I then re-coloured the keyed out elements of relevant shots. This was to give the appearance of a range of colours.
I then edited the effect ready shots to a fun & bright instrumental piece. I synced the colour and shot changes to match the beat of the accompanying instrumental.
Raw shot after reverse masking background elements
Chroma keyed version of the above shot
LEARNING & IMPROVEMENT
If I had the chance to change something, I would try to achieve a more realistic effect to re-colour the eye area. As it was a sensitive part, I could not add any physical paint around that area. I would also recolour the main raw shot to be more even.
I would consider a shorter video, so it would be more impactful. I would also include more fluid camera movement to catch the paint in motion.
